Hydraulic directional control valves with a one-part valve slide have a rigid arrangement of the control edges relative to one another. The pump connection, the tank connection and the working connections are activated via the control edges. The valve slide is displaced by a suitable actuator relative to a housing of the directional control valve. The arrangement of the control edges is generally designed with regard to a defined field of use for the directional control valve. While a standard arrangement can be suitable for a wide field of use, the use of a directional control valve for controlling a front loader of an agricultural implement, for example, requires a specially adapted arrangement of the control edges in order to avoid cavitation in the hydraulic circuit of the front loader. In that sense, a directional control valve with the standard arrangement of control edges cannot be readily used for controlling a front loader, for example. There would have to be a laborious replacement of the valve slide.
For the purpose of increased variability with respect to the field of use for the directional control valve, multipart valve slides are used in place of the single-part slide. This procedure is referred to as the concept of autonomous control edges. Every valve slide is displaced via an actuator relative to the housing of the directional control valve. The displacement movements of the multiple valve slides relative to one another are coordinated based on software via a high-performance control unit, wherein determining the position of the valve slides relative to the housing or relative to one another must be assured via an elaborate sensing process.